Glossary of terms
Here is an alphabetical explanation to some terms used for the Single Status Review.Collective agreement
It is the council's aim to reach a collective agreement with the recognised trade unions. A collective agreement is where the trade unions reach agreement with the council on the new terms and conditions on behalf of all employees covered by the pay and grading review. The collective agreement would replace the current terms and conditions of employment. For the pay review, the Trade Unions involved are UNISON, GMB and UNITE. If we reach a collective agreement on the pay review, this will change the pay and conditions of everyone, whether they are a member of a Trade Union or not.
Desktop evaluation
An evaluation of a job using the Job Description and Person Specification, together with any additional information provided by the manager or Job Family Lead.
Derbyshire Package
The name we've given to our changed set of terms and conditions of employment relating to allowances, enhancements, sickness pay, and travel related allowances, also non pay related benefits such as flexitime and annual leave.
Green Book
The national terms and conditions of employment for local government service employees which all contracts of employment refer to i.e. salary, annual leave, sickness entitlement and notice periods, also known as National Joint Council terms and conditions (NJC).
Hay Group
A global management consultancy firm that has created a job evaluation methodology.
JDQ (Job Description Questionnaire)
A Job Description Questionnaire is a document describing a job for job evaluation purposes. For jobs that were selected for evaluation up to grade SO2, the JDQ was completed by a Job Analyst during a job analysis interview with a job holder and a line manager. For jobs at Principal Officer level and above, the job holder(s) completed the JDQ. The information was then used by the job evaluation panel to evaluate the job.
Job Evaluation
A process to assess and score a job in order to produce a rank order/list of jobs. The council uses the Hay scheme for job evaluation. The score is reached by assessing the know-how, problem solving, accountability and additional working elements required to perform the job.
Job Family
A Job family is a group of jobs or roles that share similar characteristics. The exact level of responsibility, skill, knowledge or competency required of roles within a job family may vary, but the essential nature of the activities carried out and the basic skills used are similar.
Local Government Service (LGS) employees
Council employees who are employed on National Joint Council (NJC) terms and conditions.
Matching
The process of evaluating a job which is similar but not the same as a benchmark job through a desktop evaluation against a benchmark job or Template. For example, for Administration and Secretarial jobs.
National Joint Committee for Local Government Services
The National Joint Committee (NJC) for Local Government Services is a national body of council employers and trade unions and Derbyshire County Council is a member of the NJC. It is the NJC that agrees our pay award each year, for example. The NJC for Local Government Services was formed in 1997 from two older bodies, the NJC for Administrative, Professional, Technical and Clerical (APT&C) Staff and the NJC for Manual Workers. One of the aims of the pay review is to "harmonise" the pay for both these groups, so that if an employee works in the evening or at the weekend, for example, they will get paid using the same rules.
Recognised trade unions
The trade unions that are recognised by the council for negotiation purposes on pay and conditions for local government service employees are GMB, Unison and Unite.
Role Profile
This is a document which describes the typical responsibilities and knowledge, skills and experience required of jobs at a particular grade and pay band within a job family. There can be different numbers of role profiles within a family.
Single Status Agreement
The Single Status Agreement is a national agreement aimed at removing any unfairness in the pay and conditions of council employees.
Slotting
The process of giving a job the same score as a benchmark job if is the same job. This is authorised by a senior line manager. There will inevitably be some variation in the way that generic jobs are done at any one time but the jobs essentially have the same key responsibilities.